Dr. Chang obtained his M.D. degree from National Taiwan University and Ph.D. degree in Cancer Biology from Stanford University. His PhD thesis work uncovered new molecular interactions between three proto-oncogenes in leukemogenesis, and the interactions later became a field of focus in cancer biology research. After the basic science training, Dr. Chang went on to receive residency training in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School and clinical cardiology fellowship training at Stanford University. During his cardiology training, Dr. Chang was awarded the Howard Hughes Physician-Scientist Fellowship to conduct basic research of heart development at Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Stanford University. His work established a heart development research program at Stanford. After his clinical and research training, Dr. Chang served as a university-tenure-track assistant professor and associate professor with tenure in Cardiology, Stanford University from 2005 to 2013. In 2013, he was recruited from Stanford to Indiana University and undertook the directorship of Molecular and Translational Medicine at Krannert ?Institute of Cardiology to build a molecular cardiology research program with an emphasis on heart failure and translational studies. Dr. Chang was appointed Charles Fisch Scholar, holding the endowed chair of Charles Fisch, the founder of Krannert Institute of Cardiology. He serves as an Associate Professor of Medicine, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Genetics. In 2015, Dr. Chang was recruited to direct Cardiovascular Biology at Gilead Sciences to develop new therapies for cardiovascular disease. With the support of both academic and industrial institutes, Dr. Chang continues his basic research work on heart failure in his academic lab. The goal is to combine academic and industrial strength to conduct in-depth mechanistic research for basic science and translational studies for clinical applications.
Dr. Chang is an NIH-funded researcher, an American Heart Association National Scientist and Established Investigator, and an elected member of American Society for Clinical Investigation. Dr. Chang's primary research interest is in the area of developmental biology and heart failure. His research began from defining molecular interactions between different cell lineages during cardiac organogenesis in embryos. His studies of developmental biology led to several important discoveries (Cell 2004, Circ. Res 2008, Dev. Cell 2008 & 2013, Nature 2006 & 2010). From his developmental studies, Dr. Chang observed a mechanistic link at the epigenetic level between fetal heart development and stress-induced adult heart failure (Nature 2010). He then shifted his research focus to heart failure, studying epigenetics, chromatin, and transcription regulation in the failing heart. During his epigenetics studies of heart failure, Dr. Chang discovered a cardioprotective long, non-coding RNA (lncRNA) that inhibits stress-induced chromatin remodeling to prevent heart failure (Nature 2014). This provided the first example of lncRNA-chromatin remodeling interface for chromatin biology and heart failure. More recently, he showed new heart failure therapeutic targets and efficacy of small molecule- or antibody-based molecules against these targets. These molecules are going for clinical trials for heart failure therapy.